Ron's Spiders
by Square-Peas
Summary: ROn has lived his life being secon-best at everything. But suddenly this dramatically changes and he has to decide of he can be the hero he always hated Harry for being.


Ron's Spiders  
  
Living life always being second best can be really tough. You always feel incomplete, like a puzzle with several pieces missing. Your best is someone's else's worst, your ups are downs, because everything you really try to do, someone else has done it better. It makes you feel hollow inside, and all your life you try to be better, to be best, but you can't. You just can't.  
After a while you get used to it. I make a good grade on a test, Mum goes into a reverie about all the grades Bill or Charlie made. I play a prank, Fred or George tells me about a bigger or better prank they played, adding that it wasn't their most memorable, or it wasn't as good as the time when...  
*************************************  
Ron wasn't looking forward to going back to Hogwarts this year. He got on the train and sat next to Harry, like he did every year. Last year he was a prefect, he sat in the prefect compartment, and it was so amazing, but again Mum launched into a story of Bill's adventures as a prefect.  
He wasn't the first. He wasn't the best.  
No one ever wanted to listen to his troubles. No one realized that it was eating him alive.  
Like spiders.  
He know Harry was probably having far worse problems than he was. He was the one that was You-Know-Who's archenemy. He was the one with that scar on his forehead. With all those noble dilemmas, who cared about his stupid problems?  
Harry wasn't talking to him. He decided not to try to drum up conversation.  
They arrived at Hogwarts and went to the feast. It all didn't seem too important because it was all the same, Dumbledore made the same speech, they ate the same food, everything.  
Ron went to bed and went straight to sleep.  
He woke up with a start around midnight that night. He thought he heard a noise. He sat up in bed, sweat pouring down his body. The sheets felt unbearably warm and rough. He pushed them away, and they slid onto the floor in a rumpled heap. Just when he decided it was his imagination, he sat up to find a Death Eater staring him in the face.  
He vaguely felt fear, but he was groggy, not quite awake. He couldn't quite register what was happening. Just the same, he opened his mouth to say something, or yell. The Death Eater muttered, Silencio! He couldn't make a sound, but inside he was screaming at the top of his lungs. The Death Eater grabbed him by the arms and dragged him outside. Ron saw Hagrid's cabin. He was dragged right past it. Everything was sort of blurry; he couldn't get his eyes open all the way. When they were somewhere near the Forbidden Forest, he whispered,  
"I really should kill you."  
Ron wondered why he was telling him this, he was pretty much writing his will inside his head.  
"However..."  
He paused for a second.  
"I think you might know something that could help me. The Dark Lord tells me you're close to Harry Potter."  
He spit out the name like it was hot coals.  
There were so many thoughts going through his head. Terrified as he was, he could think pretty clearly. He had to make a quick decision. Could he convince him he didn't know Harry?  
"No." he said, smiling.  
Oh, great, he thought. A Legilimencist. Isn't everything just so peachy?  
The Death Eater gave him an ironic smile.  
"Do you know someone close to Harry? Someone that he would do anything for?"  
Cho, Ron thought. Then he slapped himself on the head. Stupid, he thought to himself. Don't think. Whatever you do, don't think about...  
Yes, do think! the Death Eater whispered in his mind. The voice sounded familiar...  
"Ginny! Get out of my head!" he said without thinking, knowing how odd it sounded and almost laughing out loud.  
Yes, Ron, just tell me! I won't hurt you, and you'll finally be better than Harry!  
No! Ron, I was the only one who ever listened to you! I understand you! We can get rid of Harry for good! You'll be a great wizard!  
Wait...  
The best, Ron!!  
I'll be the best... not the sidekick...  
Yes!!! YES!!!  
Suddenly Ron remembered Harry trying to stop the brain's tentacles from choking him in the Department of Mysteries... Screaming at Hermione to light a fire and save him from the Devil's Snare...  
NO!! He's always playing the hero, he doesn't care about you!  
"He's not playing the hero! He is a hero!" Ron screamed.  
He blinked in disbelief for a second... he had freed himself from the Legilimency...  
He pulled out his wand and started to say Expellarmius!  
But before he could get the whole spell out, the furious Death Eater opened his mouth and said,  
Avada Kedavra!  
A flash of green light lit the edges of the trees in the Forbidden Forest.  
"How odd," he thought.  
There was nothing else he could think about, he just kept repeating in his head,  
"How odd, how odd..."  
And he was thinking about how stupid it sounded when he started to sink into oblivion.  
"No one will ever see... no one will ever know..."  
He turned to see a lightning shaped scar on the face of Harry, the only true hero he had ever known, staring him in the face.  
He vaguely heard the words  
Protego!  
  
Waking up in the hospital wing to see worried faces all around him, but Madam Pomfrey bustled around, shooing them out.  
"He needs his rest, go on... Harry dear, you can stay..."  
For awhile, the two friends didn't speak. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, it was a peaceful one. Finally Harry looked at him and grinned.  
"Guess you conquered your spiders, huh?"  
Ron smiled back and said,  
"Yeah, I guess I did." 


End file.
